Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's another sitting day here, and another absurd MPI from a group of people who are utterly lacking in credibility when it comes to talking about the cost of living and pressures facing people right across Australia. Forgive me, Deputy Speaker, for appearing quite angry while speaking on this MPI. It's because I am. I'm really angry that, after a decade of childcare costs increasing, of out-of-pocket Medicare costs increasing, and of a deliberate strategy to keep wages low and keep workers in insecure work, those opposite have the absolute gall to walk in here and all of a sudden pretend to be on the side of working Australians, working people. I think the fact that we've seen so many state elections right across Australia where the Liberals have been voted out, where what the Liberals have to offer has been rejected, means the Australian people have gotten pretty good at seeing through the lies of those opposite. I think those opposite are pretty brave to come here, though—to give them some credit—every single day and try this on. Perhaps they deserve a bit of congratulations for their courage—or perhaps it's just shamelessness. Since we've gotten into government, we have been working really hard to relieve the pressure on families because we do understand that people are under an enormous amount of pressure across our communities.

We've heard some statements from those opposite about the importance of manufacturing in this country. I've always been a massive supporter of manufacturing and the good, secure jobs, with good wages, that the manufacturing sector provides. So I'm a bit shocked to hear those opposite come in here and talk so much about how amazing manufacturing is, because, when given the opportunity to vote for manufacturing and vote for good jobs, secure jobs that pay workers well right across the country, those opposite said no.

It's pretty appalling, too, to hear those opposite talking about what we need to do to support young people, when of course they failed a generation of young people when it came to taking action on climate change. We also saw during the very worst parts of the pandemic that universities were absolutely abandoned by those opposite, which has had a really devastating effect in my electorate on students studying at Monash and Deakin, particularly postgraduate students. And those opposite really failed to have much vision at all when it came to improving the quality of jobs for young people. I'm really delighted that one of the recent policies that we've enacted will ensure that superannuation is paid to people on payday. That will have a real effect on young people, because it is largely young people and those in insecure work who have suffered from the loss of that entitlement in the past. I'm so delighted to be part of a government that is taking action there, which will improve the cost-of-living pressures for young people not just now—and with those other measures that I have described—but also in the future, when it comes to their retirement.

In my electorate we have around 7½ thousand people that will benefit from the increase to the Child Care Subsidy—cheaper child care—which will commence on 1 July. I'm really pleased to see that, particularly because we saw the cost of child care rise under the decade that those opposite presided over, under their woeful government.

We also saw aged-care workers recently get a much-deserved pay increase. For those hardworking people in the care economy, largely women, that's going to make a huge difference to their cost-of-living pressures. Again we are reminded of the absolute contempt those opposite had for working people and for quality wages for a decade, to the extent of ridiculing the now Prime Minister when he suggested that the lowest paid workers in our economy should get a pay rise. It is absolutely disgraceful. I'm so glad Australians rejected that nonsense from those opposite.

We're tripling the Medicare rebates for families. In my electorate alone, we saw out-of-pocket costs to see a GP rise by 38 per cent. If you want to talk about inflation, that's a pretty significant cost-of-living increase and pressure on households.

I'm proud to be part of a government that is taking cost-of-living pressures across the country seriously. I find the opposition's tactics in these MPIs utterly bizarre.

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